With these glowing reviews, I had to find out whether this would work for me. So I ordered one, and with some qualifications, I am happy to report that this palette is surprisingly good in many respects.

I won’t repeat the information in the other reviews, as they are all easily reachable at the links (above). If you click the image below, you can see twelve rose-gold toned eyeshadows. This combination of mattes, shimmers, and glitters is picking up on the rose gold moment that’s been building since Tiffany’s blew us all away with the Rubedo collection.

The palette is m ore sturdy that the typical Urban Decay flocked-paper ones, this one seems to be made of a plastic or composite that is more robust (although it’s not as protective for its size and dimension as a Giorgio Armani, Chanel, or Bobbi Brown package).

For me, the included double-ended brush was unusable because it gave me almost no control over the pigmentation. Every sweep gave me application that was far too heavy, and I was unable to achieve the right blending or light, layered application that I prefer. Instead, I used the Edward Bess Luxury Eye Brush, which worked far, far better.

Most of the shades are beautiful, pigmented, and apply and blend very, very well. I found myself using a combination of Liar, Factory and Mugshot for an everyday, rose-gold toned eye. So, the mid-to-deep shades were a huge success. The lighter shades were more problematic for me. Strange makes a nice base color, but otherwise became a bit invisible. Dust–which was the bright rose-gold wonder that beckoned me from the promotional images–has a high level of fallout and was not a flattering texture on my lid. Swatches:

I’m not sure whether I’ll Blackheart for anything other than a liner. Another set of swatches:

Overall, I was surprised at the high quality of most of the shades of the Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette. My sense that 9 or 10 of these shades are really lovely. Although we can hope for 100% success for our palette criteria, Urban Decay swung for the bleachers in this one and so making it to the outfield was a pretty good result. As an aside, I’m unaware of any other company that’s released a palette with this same rose gold tonality. I hope we do. Because, Pantone’s edict aside, my own personal color of the year for 2014 is rose gold.

Urban Decay recently began shipping the Naked Palette ($44), an amazingly soft and pigmented collection of twelve neutral colors. Packaged with a mini-eyeshadow primer and a double-ended pencil liner, Primer Potion, this mix of two mattes and ten shimmers delivers an incredible value for the price.

These shades include:

Virgin: A shimmery creamy warm white

Sin: A highly shimmery cream with a touch of peach

Naked: A matte light latte cream

Sidecar: A highly shimmery cream-gold, with glitter bits

Buck: A matte medium brown

Half-baked: A shimmery warm gold with a very smooth texture

Smog: A shimmery deep gold-brown

Darkhorse: A shimmery dark bronze-brown

Toasted: A metallic soft brown with a touch of grey and a faint hint of pink

Hustle: A shimmery deep brown with a faint touch of burgundy

Creep: An extremely pigmented shimmer black with glitter

Gunmetal: A metallic shimmery dark gray

Those who dislike shimmery eyeshadows should steer clear, almost all of these shades have a metallic glow. Some of these shades will deposit glitter on the lids, and yes it is noticeable as the day goes on. Also, these shades have a more metallic shine than lines such as Guerlain, Bobbi Brown’s Shimmerwash and Chanel shimmer shadows.

However, if you don’t mind adding a splash of drama to your neutral eye repertoire, you will love this palette. The eyeshadows are buttery soft; the pigmentation is excellent. I cannot imagine how many combinations you could make will all of these shades. Urban Decay knocked it out of the park with the quality of this palette. This many high quality eyeshadows for this price makes this palette a must-have for most neutral eyeshadow lovers.

Because it includes a usable mirror, primer, liner and so much versatility, this would make a wonderful gift for someone headed off to college, or someone who wants to wear neutrals to school.

Here are the liners included: Whiskey (brown) and Zero (black):

Swatches:

All in a row:

One caution about Urban Decay’s Naked Palette–the packaging is cardboard covered in a velvety flocking. This is not a travel-friendly sturdy palette (Armani has nothing to worry about here), and the velvety flocking is likely to retain powder from other makeup. Nonetheless, if you have ever thought “I wish cosmetic companies would put more effort into the product, rather than the packaging,” your wish has been granted. Urban Decay’s Naked palette delivers beautiful quality eyeshadows, liners, and primer for a very affordable price.

Update (7/11/10): I’ve received the palette–review and photographs are here.

Former text:

Today on Urban Decay‘s Facebook page, these gorgeous palette and swatches appeared, due to release in Fall 2010. The site says that these will be available online at Urban Decay’s site on Tuesday June 29, 2010. I’ll update this as the company releases more information:

More– Vegan Palette:

What do we think? (I can’t wait to read your comments!)

I’ll add a link to this is the tab marked “Links to Fall 2010 Collections,” above. By the way, I’m always updating this page so check back. There are currently links to Chanel’s Enigma eyeshadow quad added (linking to the Beauty Moogle’s blog) and a few quick pictures of the MAC-Disney collaboration.